Review of Coach Rick's Mittology

Today I got my Coach Ricks Mittology DVD in the mail. I had seen some of the sample vids posted on Facebook. Like this:





I became friends with Rick instantly and eventually decided I wanted to buy a copy. Well I took a look at the website Mittology Website here and wasn't sure what to buy. I sent Rick an email and explained, I been doing boxing drills for many years now and learned many mitt holding techniques and consider myself pretty good. He suggested I get the "Coach Ricks Trainers Kit" which has a 3 set of Intermediate-Advanced DVD's.

Today they came in the mail around 3 pm and by 6pm after watching all 3 and taking notes, I can say They Did Not disappoint!

The first DVD was a 'Basic' Technical pattern and a second pattern called the 'Base pattern'. The Basic Technical pattern is a pretty long set of punching and counters, while the Base pattern is short and makes for a great flow drill.

The second DVD was 'Technical footwork' and goes into Balance, stance, and some foot work drills that are common to boxing, but then has some eye opening fundamental footwork drills to train. I really liked the Cuban pivot and small circle drills. It really describes something I had been working on my own without knowing there was something already called that.

The last video called 'Progressive Technical mittwork' gives the viewer some templates to work with the 'Base patttern' from the first DVD and makes for some interesting combinations/flow drills to work on with your training partners.

What is important about the DVD's is the instruction quality and price quality. It wasn't to expensive and it wasn't unclear as to what to do. If you are good at pad holding, then this set will make sense. I was a bit skeptical about over emphasis on mitt work, but the purpose is to help the fighter develop good reaction and muscle memory, and this will carry over into sparring.

One thing I used to do was on a slow day at the office was watch the mittology youtubes and try to decipher and write down the combinations to try later. Watching it over and over, pausing, writing notes...Hell it just will NOT work that way. First, they just going to damn fast on those teaser clips, and second, you need Coach Rick to explain that sh*t to you. It is a good buy if you love training and boxing and will be good for you library. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to my friends.

Bare knuckle training old school.

Pug Ugly Boxing on John Sullivan and Bare knuckle boxing

What I can take from the article:

abstinence and exercise, exercise and abstinence:

6-12 mile walks with running at the end.

for fight- detox, lose weight, and get recovery massages.
- lay low on sparring.
- mentally walk through every aspect of fight.
- medicine ball hitting: timing and footwork.
- take down defense with wrestling.

take a saturday:
- 10 mile walk
- 2 mile run
- 15 minute tread water
- light dumbell workout
- boxing work out
- skip rope

Fight training for Lei Tai 6/25/2011 with Tyson DeWees

warm-up:
jump rope 5 min.


Tabata rounds on the heavy ropes:
switch between alternate arms
open close arms
double whip arms
Sample heavy rope vids:

Agility drill 5x:
drop down to push up- hindu push up- side ski jump left and right-rt. leg skip jump-left leg skip jump.

station circuit 3x:
10- shoulder sand bag squats.
10- slam sand bag.
5- ring pull ups.
10 ring push ups.

thai pad work:speed non-stop.
1. jab-cross-l.hook-r.hook-l.upper cut , rt.uppercut.
2. jab-cross-rt. kick, left kick.
3. jab-cross-rt. kick, left kick, shoot.

heavy bag round:
-work punch/kick combos and shoot.


condition out:
both legs: inside calf kick, out side calf kick, inside thigh kick, outside thigh kick.
-two kicks to body
-two kicks to head
-jab cross hook hook to body.

Farnam "Farre" Mirzai seminar at Novamma notes

Farnam "Farre" Mirzai (Sweden) Based in Thailand from 2005-2010, did a seminar, his lessons are very clear and practical giving a new sense of basics. Many of the things I had learned in Thailand, however it is critical lesson on basics and could always use a refresher and reintegration in training.

Video of his famous spinning backfist:



Seminar Farre
Stretching and shadow boxing warm-up.

Lesson:
-Stance: balance 50/50 "balls of feet" ready to continual shifting between rear
weight and front weight. Balance , balance, balance! Hands relaxed, dont tense unless taking punishment. save your energy for 5 rounds.

- Front leg 70% weight: be ready to use rear leg for kicks, defense, fakes.

- rear leg 70% weight: be ready to use front leg for knee,
kick, defense etc.

Training shadow box rounds: stance and angle.
1.-Raise leg: for defense
2. Fakie hip or shoulder
3. shadow box with fakie, single attack and defense 9work all three in diffrent order)

Partner work:
4. Angle attack rt left, far and close range, play with counters.
5. Angle close 'haymaker' head control then knee.
6. Thiep kick- drill vs attack.
7. Defense- arm out step back block jab cross.
8. Vs. Uppercut- arm out then rt arm covers head with elbow down to
stop uppercut.
9. -round kick to leg above knee, cover head and expand arm.
10. - kick catch: ankle lock, add counters or push.
11. -rt elbow and cover, be ready to counter
12. single arm push as defense for many things like knee etc.
lesson on attacking: attack when person is on one leg, attack when they are unbalanced.

Training at Khun Kao Gym- Kru Brooks Miller 3/15/2011

Trained last night at Kru Brook's home gym and had a really great workout. Kru Brooks is a former MT coach at NOVAMMA and is a champion level United States Muay Thai athlete. He is a pivotal member of helping develop and organize Muay Thai events in North America.

We reviewed the following:

Scoring in Muay Thai: higher to lower scoring techniques.
1. knockdown/sweep
2. knee to head
3. round kick to head, elbow that cuts
4. straight knee to body
5. round kick to body
6. side knee to body
7. kick to arms
8. push kicks that moves opponent
9. round kick to leg
10. punches/elbows

Winner of round is determined by:
1. lands the most scoring strikes
2. lands most effective strikes
3. cause the most damage
4. most aggressive
5. best defense
6. fouled the least
*Other factors include: ability to show toughness, inability to answer high scoring techniques, showing tiredness/injury.

Technique lesson- do not reach out for a clinch, use knees and elbows-> clinch -> throw.

Training:

Shadow box- 2x 3 minutes
end of round drill knees and kicks (to get final scoring in).

Foot work drills:
1. Angle step forward, slide step sideways.
2. Side step pivot left and right.
3. Pivot step with changing to southpaw stance.
4. Cross step.


Stepping and counter attack drill:
1. Angle off jab: freestyle counter w/ punch, knee, kick, etc.
2. Angle off Cross: freestyle counter w/ punch, knee, kick, etc.

Focus mitt/pad- again working with stepping drill.3 minutes each.
1. Jab cross hook, angle, rt. Kick to body, cross.
2. Jab cross hook, 'cross step' side connect to opponent, left hook, rt. Kick to leg.
3. Double kick drill- pad holder moves forward making kicker adjust stepping. 5 kicks at end.
4. Jab-cross: moving forward drill.
5. Move pad holder drill with push kicks and knees.



conditioning:
3 mile run.
3x circuit:
50 squats w/medicine ball.
40 slams w/ medicine ball.
30 V-ups.
20 plyo-push ups.
10 pull ups.
3x3 heavy bag.